Was watching Faking It on Sunday night and have to say it was one of the top things I’ve watched this year on tele. For those who are unfamiliar with the concept, they take a person and train them to do a completely different job in the space of four weeks. At the end of the four weeks theres a test of sorts to see if an expert panel can pick out the faker. Except the panel aren’t told that there’s gonna be a faker in the group. There’s been 5 series so far but I only caught the odd episode. They’re trying not to exhaust the format but there was a special hour and a half episode on Sunday night about a physics masters student from Edinburgh named Kevin McMahon who was to become a magician.

He went to live with a professional magician and his family in London and also got trained by a comedy/magician who would be able to teach him a bit of banter for his gigs. The whole thing wasn’t going so well (even after going to Las Vegas to meet Pen and Teller) but they brought in a third mentor who has worked with all the major magicians. The first word out of his mouth after seeing his performance was “shite”. 😯 Kevin was stunned but got serious about what he needed to do. Anyhow, after the final test none of the judges sussed he would be a faker and he went back to Edinburgh to resume his studies. However, he decided on a change of career and is now a full time magician doing kids parties, dinner parties etc. Here’s his web site. I thought it was fantastic to see someone take up a new career as a result of a TV show. More power to him.